Chapter 5

Raina

I stared at Evo's face, which was very serious, and then my gaze fell on the red box he took out from the pocket of his coat. It's a white gold wedding ring. A heart-shaped ring with an amethyst stone in the middle, which is my birthstone. It's very beautiful and obviously very expensive. But the question is, am I ready to enter into a marriage of convenience for the sake of my baby's safety? What if after I give birth, Evo divorces me and takes my child away, just as I fear might happen?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I have no choice but to accept Evo's marriage proposal even though it is only a marriage for convenience. I need him to save my child's life. Whatever his true reason is for choosing to cancel his engagement with Rina and offer me marriage, only he knows. But I hope his reason is to save our child.

"Okay. I accept your marriage proposal, Evo. But I want you to fulfill what you told me earlier. We will only be married on paper. We will only live in the same house because of our responsibility to the child," I said to him with a blank expression. As much as possible, I don't want to show any emotion to him that he might use against me someday.

"Good. You didn't make a mistake with that decision, Raina," Evo said as if what I did was just a light and normal thing. "I will fulfill my promise not to bind you in the matrimony of marriage. You can still do whatever you want after you give birth to our child."

I admit that I felt a slight disappointment in his reaction. But what should I have expected his reaction to be? From the start, I knew that the only reason he wanted to marry me was because of the baby in my womb and, of course, because of the land he was buying that belonged to my family.

"If I fall in love with another man and want to marry him, will you let me divorce you and not take my child away from me?" I asked him tentatively.

Evo didn't answer me immediately; instead, he just stared at me for a few seconds. His Adam's apple moved in his throat as if he was holding back emotion. I thought he would contradict what I said, but that's not what I heard from him when he spoke again.

"You don't have to worry about that, Raina. I promise to let you go once you fall in love with someone else. And to make your mind at ease, I will prepare a marriage agreement between us."

I hadn't been able to respond to Evo when the door to my room suddenly opened, and my dad entered the room along with Rina and my stepmother. Evo and I stopped our conversation and exchanged meaningful glances.

"You're awake now, Raina. That's good so we can talk about you and Mr. Mondragon. Tell me how it happened that he is the father of the child you're carrying," my dad said with authority in his voice.

"I don't need to tell you the details of how he became the father of my child, Dad. If you don't believe me, I'm willing to take a DNA test just to prove to you that I'm telling the truth," I replied to him coldly. I was upset with him. No. I wasn't just upset with him; I was angry at him. Because if Evo hadn't arrived, my baby wouldn't be in my womb now. If he had succeeded in his evil plan, I promise I would never forgive him.

"Dad, even if it's true that the child inside Raina's womb is Evo's, I don't care. Evo can support the child without having to marry Raina. I should be the one marrying Evo, not that woman," Rina said angrily, giving me a sharp look, but I just ignored it.

"Our engagement was canceled, Rina. So whether you like it or not, I will not marry you but your older sister," Evo said to Rina. Her face darkened even more, and if Evo wasn't in front of her, she would have surely attacked me out of the intense anger I saw on her face.

"Are you just going to allow your flirtatious daughter to steal your child's fiancé, Reynold? She's no different from her mother! They're both thieves!" my stepmom angrily said to my dad.

I felt anger towards her because of what she said about my mom, even though she's already dead. I may not know the story behind my stepmom's words, but I believe that my mother was not a thief when she was alive. My stepmom probably just couldn't accept that my dad chose my mom over her, so she threw all sorts of bad words at someone already dead. So disrespectful. So I won't be surprised why the child behaves that way because they inherited it from them.

"Watch your words, Mrs. Cervantes! Maybe if I change my mind, I'll just marry Raina but I won't buy your neglected land. You know no one else will buy your land once they find out I rejected it," Evo sternly warned my stepmother.

Minerva suddenly fell silent when she heard what Evo said. I wanted to respond to my stepmom, but Evo beat me to it and I liked what he said, so I just kept quiet.

"Stop it, Minerva! We have no choice but to follow what Evo wants," Dad scolded his wife. My resentment towards him grew even more because he didn't defend my mother against

I am Minerva.

"But, Dad! It can't-" Rina was about to protest, but Daddy ignored her; my father turned his back and left my room without a word after giving me a nasty look.

Evo didn't stay long at our house either. He also left to go home. But before he left, he put his phone number on my cellphone so that I could call him immediately if anything happened.

A few minutes after Evo left, Rina entered my room again, furious.

"You shameless woman! You stole my man! Because of you, my wedding with Evo will not going to happen anymore!" Rina pointed at me while her eyes blazed with anger. "I promise that I will take back what you take away from me!"

"Don't blame me for why your wedding didn't push through, Rina. You're the one at fault here. If you had just kept quiet when you found out I was pregnant, this wouldn't have happened. I had no intention of telling Evo about my pregnancy. But because you're mean and wanted to embarrass me, karma suddenly came back to you," I replied to her. That's what happens when you plan something bad for others, karma comes back to you.

Rina's eyes glared even more when she heard what I said. "Remember this, Raina. I won't allow your wedding to happen. As long as you're not married, I still have a chance. So prepare yourself because—" Rina left her sentence hanging and gave me a mysterious smile before leaving my room.

I couldn't understand but suddenly felt anxious about her threat. I felt fear about what she might do to me, especially to the baby in my womb.